## The Group of Documents Printed Below, Written by Lenin

INTRODUCTION.

The group of documents printed below, written by Lenin in February-March 1911, is devoted to the question of the struggle against conciliationism among the Bolsheviks. The majority of Lenin's letters are addressed to A. I. Rykov, one of the prominent representatives of conciliationism among Russian practitioners, who was a member of the Russian Collegium of the Central Committee, established by a plenum of the Central Committee in January 1910.

At this plenum, the Bolshevik conciliators (L. Kamenev, I. Dubrovsky, V. Nogin) supported Trotsky and representatives of the national social-democratic parties (Bund, PSD, SDP of Latvia) and pushed through a series of resolutions in a conciliationist spirit. Against Lenin's line of struggle on two fronts against liquidators and Otzovists, the conciliators headed by Trotsky counterposed the formula of "overcoming dangerous deviations" through "expanding and deepening s.d. work." On the question of the paths and methods of party unification, the plenum adopted the standpoint of the conciliators.

Nevertheless, the plenum, at Lenin's insistence and that of the Bolsheviks, was forced to adopt a resolution condemning liquidationism and Otzovism. The Mensheviks and Forwardists, for diplomatic considerations, not wishing to prematurely fully reveal their antiparty positions, also voted for this resolution. The plenum rendered a decision on the elimination of fractional centers by both Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. In connection with this, the Bolsheviks undertook to dissolve their center, cease publication of *Proletariat*, and transfer their available funds to three "trustees": K. Kautsky, F. Mehring, and C. Zetkin. At the same time, the Bolsheviks submitted a statement regarding the conditions under which they would hand over monetary funds of the Bolshevik fraction to the trustees. The statement said: "We consider the following steps as those that would force us to demand the return of money from the trustees: the continuation of publication by the Mensheviks of their leading fractional organ, the preservation of a Menshevik fractional fund, the refusal to assist all-party centers in Russia and abroad." The Central Committee, for its part, adopted the following resolution regarding the procedure for return of the funds surrendered by the Bolsheviks: "If during this time the representatives of the Bolshevik tendency... present a demand for the transfer to them of the sum remaining by that time, then this question in all its scope—namely, whether to transfer it and to whom exactly (to the Bolshevik members of the CC and CC Collegium or to the CC)—is decided finally by these trustees, with a plenum being convened beforehand for this purpose, which adopts a decision on this question; the trustees are informed of this decision and of the debates." Despite the fact that the Bolsheviks fulfilled their undertakings, the Mensheviks did not fulfill a single one of the conditions. The Forwardists and Trotsky continued fractional work. The Bolsheviks, not having in their hands their own organ, could during the first months after the plenum appear in print chiefly on the pages of the CC Organ—*Social-Democrat*, in the editorial board of which two Bolsheviks—Lenin and Zinoviev—faced two Mensheviks—Martov and Dan, and the representative of the PSD—Leder, who wavered between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, maintained "equilibrium."

This state of "equilibrium" and "neutralization" in the CC Organ led to the fact that "while other fractions, badly or well, carried on work, the Bolsheviks found themselves bound hand and foot." (Letter of N. K. Krupskaya to G. L. Shklovskii, 30 November 1910, see *Proletarskaia revoliutsiia* No. 8, 1925, p. 112.) At a time of the rise of a new upsurge, when more than ever Bolshevik leadership of the movement was necessary, the activity of the Foreign center of the Bolsheviks was extremely hampered. In the Russian Collegium of the Central Committee, the Bolsheviks were represented by conciliators: Goldenberg (Meshkovsky), Dubrovsky (Innocent), Nogin (Makar), Rykov (Vlasov), and Leiteyzen (Lindov). From the Mensheviks in the Russian Collegium were included: Zhordania (Kostrov), Ramishvili (Peter), Isuv (Michael), Ermolaev (Roman), Bronstein (Yuri), and 3 representatives of national s.d. parties. The Mensheviks, having set their course on the liquidation of the illegal party, in every way hindered the convocation of the Russian Collegium of the Central Committee. Three of them, Michael, Roman, and Yuri, refused to participate in the work of the Central Committee. The Bolshevik conciliators, attempting at all costs to work together with the Mensheviks, were incapable of doing anything to develop party work in Russia. Regarding the results of their work, Lenin wrote: "The result—zero. Not a single leaflet, not a single statement, not one organ, not one ('reconciliation'). And at the Bolsheviks', the 'fractionalists'... the foreign *Workers' Gazette*, which got on its feet after two issues" (*Works*, Vol. XV, p. 237). Trotsky in a resolution that he pushed through on 26 November 1910 in the Vienna Club called for giving "decisive opposition" to the *Workers' Gazette*, as a new "fractional-clique enterprise," and made a proposal to organize an all-party fund for preparing and convening a conference of the RSDLP. The conference prepared by Trotsky in 1912 laid the beginning of the existence of the antiparty August bloc. These steps for uniting antiparty elements into a liberal workers' party required from the Bolshevik center the adoption of decisive measures. On 5 December 1910, under the signature of Lenin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev, a declaration was submitted to the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee regarding the necessity of convening a plenum of the Central Committee to decide the question of the return of the funds surrendered by the Bolsheviks to the "trustees." The plenum was also to create a new Russian center and proceed to convene a conference.

The Mensheviks, who had a preponderance in the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee, contrary to the direct decision of the January plenum of the Central Committee, decided to wreck the convocation of the plenum required by the Bolsheviks. On 27 January 1911, the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee passed a resolution recognizing it inexpedient to convene a plenum, "in view of the organization in the near future of a meeting of the narrow composition of the Central Committee," having in mind the convocation of the Russian Collegium of the Central Committee. In response to this resolution, Lenin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev on 31 January 1911 addressed a statement to the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee, where, alongside criticism of the behavior of the Foreign Bureau, it was stated that the Bolsheviks agreed to the convocation of a "narrow composition of the Central Committee." The further struggle between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks unfolded around the question of the convocation of the Russian Collegium of the Central Committee, to which the letters printed below are devoted.

In February 1911, the Russian Collegium of the Central Committee consisted of 8 people (Rykov, Nogin, Leiteyzen, Zhordania, Ramishvili, and 3 representatives of national s.d. parties), since I. Dubrovsky and Goldenberg-Meshkovsky had been arrested in 1910, and three Menshevik Central Committee members (Michael, Roman, and Yuri) had refused to work in the Central Committee. At this time, Rykov was in Berlin, and Nogin and Leiteyzen in Tula (which is why they figure in the correspondence under the pseudonym "Samovars"). At the forthcoming meeting, in addition to the remaining Central Committee members present, candidates to the Central Committee from among those elected at the London Congress (the "London candidates") were to be present. The Bolsheviks were striving to create a numerical preponderance at this meeting and considered it necessary to transfer it abroad, where the Central Committee would, moreover, be beyond the reach of the tsarist secret police. In connection with this, Nogin submitted to the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee a proposal to transfer the meeting abroad. The Bundist Yudin spoke against it, and Leiteyzen supported him. Nogin submitted to this decision. On the initiative of the Bund representative, a series of unsuccessful attempts were made to convene the Central Committee in Russia. Soon Nogin and Leiteyzen were arrested.

After this, the Foreign center of the Bolsheviks invited Rykov, Tyshko, and Barsky, who were in Berlin, to a preliminary meeting. At the meeting, which took place in May 1911, it was decided to break with the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee and, acting independently of it, to convene in June a meeting of Central Committee members instead of the planned plenum of the Central Committee. The meeting took place on 10-17 June 1911. At it was created a Foreign Organizational Commission for convening an all-party conference, as a result of whose work the Prague Conference of 1912 was convened, which completed the process of formation of an independent Bolshevik party.

The Bolshevik conciliators, together with representatives of the PSD (headed by Tyshko), who after the June 1911 meeting created their fractional center in the "Technical Commission" and who relied on the Paris group of conciliators (Vladimirov and others), already before this formation into a fraction conducted in February-March 1911 a line of unprincipled unificationism. A document issued by the Bolshevik conciliators and the PSD under the title "Points of Agreement" served as the subject of analysis by Lenin in the first of the letters printed below. This agreement made possible the inclusion in the Central Committee of 1 vote-holder (liquidator) and proceeded from the necessity of preserving the "principle of equilibrium." According to Lenin's assessment of the result of this agreement: "Neutralization, i.e., complete impotence of the Central Committee!! This is precisely what the liquidators need" (p. 12). As is evident from the subsequent correspondence, Rykov pursued in fact "that which the liquidators need." His conciliationism toward the *Forward* group also proceeded along the line of support for the unification of antiparty elements being undertaken by the liquidators against the Bolshevik-Leninists. (At this time, the *Forward* group also had considerable funds and agents in Russia from practitioners who had gone through the Forward school, which gave it the opportunity to play a significant role in preparing the antiparty bloc.) The activity of Rykov and other conciliators from the Central Committee amounted to the fact that they, according to Lenin's definition, continued for more than a year "to court the antiparty fractions of 'Voice' and 'Forward', hindering our work (in the party spirit) with multilayered formalities..." (p. 27). When some persistence was required from Rykov in implementing the line outlined by Lenin in the Russian section of the Central Committee, he displayed spineless vacillation and declared that if the convocation of the Central Committee was delayed he would withdraw from it. In response to this, Lenin writes: "If you withdraw from the Central Committee, this will be fleeing the field of battle, a betrayal of Bolshevism at a difficult moment" (p. 33). It is known that in the "difficult moment" of the October Revolution, Rykov, together with Kamenev and Zinoviev, "fled the field of battle." At the decisive stage of building socialism, Rykov again found himself in the ranks of the right capitulators. Thus, Rykov's wavering in 1911 in the direction of preserving peace with elements hostile to the working class were not accidental. In October 1911, Lenin in the article "On the New Fraction of Conciliators or the Virtuous," summing up all the line of conduct of the Bolshevik conciliators during two years (from November 1909), wrote that Bolshevism, which "survived" the Otzovst sickness," "will survive also the 'conciliationist' sickness, wavering in the direction of liquidationism (for in fact the conciliators were always a plaything in the hands of the liquidators)" (*Works*, Vol. XV, p. 243). The party, which grew together with the rise of the workers' movement, united under its banner all that was best in the working class, and became, contrary to the liquidators and their accomplices, the conciliators, truly a proletarian, genuinely Leninist party.